MMO98

This was just okay, I actually think the game is fine - just difficult for me to truly recommend. I enjoy the aesthetic here, and the overall idea behind the game - very reminiscient of Game Dev Tycoon. I think for me the problems stem from: - Aside from the Windows 98 vibes, there isn't much to make it feel like you're managing a classic MMO, or truly tying it to that theme. - Every time you release a new title you start from scratch and don't carry over your upgrades, which means you have to repeat a lot of gameplay again just to start truly feeling your growth. - The gameplay mechanics for maintaining the MMO can feel shallow and repetitive - yes there is automation for them but I feel it takes a bit too long to build into it properly.

I started this game by playing the solitaire minigame. I recommend avoid doing this because for some reason the odds are so heavily stacked against you that chances are, you're not going to win. I played solitaire for 87 minutes before I got my first win. That was over 30 games of solitaire. No achievement, no reward. Just play solitaire on your computer if you want to play it, because this one is poorly made. You cannot change the settings, you can't set it to draw one. You just have to be VERY lucky to get a win. This is all before I get into the actual game... I'll edit my review at some point, but safe to say, I'm already starting off angry with this game. Alright, so I did finish the game. There's no achievement for solitaire, there is however one for minesweeper. If like me, you suck at Minesweeper, don't worry, there are online solvers for it. That made it far simpler to do. The game itself however, is far more boring than minesweeper, and I say this as someone who genuinely hates minesweeper. You're going to be buying the same upgrades, and looping a LOT. You're going to need to loop approximately 30-40 times to finish this. Maybe a little less, or a little more, depending on RNG or patience. You can collect a maximum amount of "Data" every time you make a game. To get the prestige upgrades. This takes a long time, it requires a mix of a few upgrades that increase how much you get, and a seriously huge amount of players. Which takes a lot of boring gameplay and clicking. You can also open lootboxes for money. This is the most boring thing I've done on a game in a long time. This game is awful. It's so awful, it looks like windows 95. Which as we all know, was a load of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it's supposed to be helpful but I really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ doubt it. I swear the solitaire, was the one good thing about it. And this games solitaire is ♥♥♥♥. (For those who don't know, I'm referencing the ♫ song ♪ by the Amateur Transplants: Windows 95. Look it up, well worth listening to, very short.) Honestly, this game was just something I got to get all the achievements and never play again. But good god. It was not a fun time. Thanks for reading, or skipping to the end. Have a lovely day, please. <3

[h2] Nice aesthetics, but not much else under the hood [/h2] I'm a big fan of incremental and simulator games and own quite a great deal of them. I was drawn to MMO98 by its aesthetic and premise, however as other reviewers have pointed out, the game really doesn't do anything to actually connect with its trappings. [h2] From Zero to Game Dev Hero [/h2] The premise is you've started an indie game studio (implied to be out of your garage by the gnome who won't actually leave you alone even if you disable him) with the goal of creating the number one MMO in the world. Beyond advising you that's your goal, you don't have any gameplay systems that make you feel the premise is more than just the aesthetic and the back of the box description. You name your game, pick one of around 10 pieces of box art (neither has an impact, though of course it would add layers of complexity to have to have that factor in), and...that's it. Nothing else in the experience ties into you actually trying to make a hit game. Once you name your game and pick your box art, you release it and from then you have to manage buying servers to handle load and clicking on bits of code that are glitchy to minimize bugs. Every so often you spend a large sum to do another "pass" on the quality of the game, which is just you clicking the money button and waiting. You're told you need to be ready to release a sequel for when the sales of your game dries up, only the sales never dried up for me. The real reason you want to release a sequel is because there are two or three modifiers that will increase how many fans you start the next game with which in turn makes it quicker to earn money. You're told you need to react to trolls and other bad actors in your game, only you can't, there's no way to actually interact even though the gnome tells you that you need to and chat complains about cheaters. You're told you need to be sensitive to player feedback to make your next game better, only there's nothing to interact with or change. There are two skill trees, one that resets every time you release a new game until you buy the perk to make it persistent, and one where you have persistent upgrades that amount to making money faster and reducing how often you have to squash bugs. Beyond that, there's really nothing to the game, and within the first couple of minutes you've experienced everything it has to offer. [h2] But isn't this an idle game? What were you expecting? [/h2] Here's the thing: the idle games and incremental games that set themselves apart from the rest are the ones that offer more than a nostalgic aesthetic. There's a connective tissue under the hood that ties the art and sound design to the premise, and generally offers an addictive loop that keeps you going "...just one more round...", and that's what MMO98 is missing. In most themed incremental and/or idle games, you have a variety of systems you're meant to engage with. Titles like Chef Knight, Fishing Inc., Voidloop, and Dragon Ruins are more the incremental with idle than the idle with incremental, but there are other titles like Dragon Cliff, Weapon Shop Fantasy, most Kairosoft games, Swag and Sorcery, Idle Slayer, Skeleseller, Soda Dungeon 2, and more that have gameplay systems that tie into the theme they're built around. MMO98 could have offered systems such as: - Starting with low poly graphics and building your studio to offer more cutting edge visuals in your game - Working to hire better and better composers for the soundtrack of your game - Building out expansions for your title and reacting to player feedback for what they want to see in them - Adding features like content packs with new classes, skill tree overhauls, and more - Having to worry about rival studios in the industry - Adapting to new operating systems, hacking attempts, managing employees and their satisfaction There are a lot of idler and incremental systems the game could have had, but what you get instead is click the button to trigger automated development passes, click the button to make bugs go away, click the button to add more servers, and that's the whole experience. [h2] Did any positives stand out? [/h2] - The aesthetic is nice, though with the layout you don't really get to appreciate it. - You can play solitaire which is neat, but only draw three which is less neat. - There's minesweeper. I'm absolutely terrible at it, so I never touched it, but it's out there for anyone who wants to play it. - The music is really pretty, nice intersect of vaporwave and dreamcore. [h2] But I mean, it's only $7 [/h2] Yes, but, most idler and incremental games are under ten dollars, so that's not really a factor in this review. I do think the dev has an interesting foundation they can build on here, it's just that for the time being, the full release feels like something that ought to be a demo for a more robust experience. I do wish them all the best though, and if they come back and add more, I'd be more than willing to revisit this review. For the time being, however, I have to recommend picking up the soundtrack and checking out other titles in the genre in the interim.

I wish steam had a "mixed" Played the demo, honestly there really wasnt much of a difference between the full game and the demo. For one its really really short and none of the upgrades change how you play the game fundementally, the automated debugger is nice but the fact the game is so short is kind of insane. Its an idler with very little unique elements. I think using the games as a way to have more sinks and elements that change how it plays out would be cool like spin offs that generate less data but more money as a inter game element, leveled upgrades so you can scale into insane numbers, checkboxe's like what elements a game will have that change modifiers like making it F2P which would remove income on sale but MASSIVELY increases player count and MTX elements meaning its more of a a way that gives you more true fans and later life cycle income, but the down side is managing early game player counts with less money. Or perhaps stuff like "insane graphics" which generate more early hype but introduce far more bugs. Or "action combat" that increases hype massively but increases development costs and strains your networking more. Stuff like that to change up the game would go a long way as it is the game just feels underbaked.

It doesn't offer much for an incremental. You just click buttons to try and keep gauges from getting too full, there is no real mechanic here.

I've played quite a few clickers / idlers, and would say this deserves a bit more credit than quite a lot of reviews give it. I bought it after the Service Pack 2 update, which maybe changed things quite a bit, but the pacing felt quite good and for the price the amount of content felt great. My only gripe is a game breaking bug I ran into by not clicking an email before saving and exiting the game. The only way to get around that is to either start a new game, or patching your save file to unset a flag so the game can pick it back up. So if you're reading this before playing it - just keep that in mind in case the bug still exists when you play :)

worst solitaire mini game I've ever played

unfortunately just not very good poorly executed retro theming that predates the invention of the modern MMOs the game references by over half a decade is pretty passe and feels like it was cashing on on a trend, which is sadly consistent with the gameplay. nodebuster upgrade tree- click things to increase the number go up, but cost of upgrades scales faster than number going up so it takes longer each time. two chores (spam clicking and incredibly simply minigame) you have to juggle, and a lame prestige mechanic that pretty consistently feels like a reset wasn't worth it. a few of the menus are loaded up with irrelevant UI elements and stats in, if i was feeling particularly cynical, seems to be an attempt to make steam store screenshots look more complex than the game actually is? skip this one

As an incremental idler, it isn't that good. Once you hit the point where you start idling (I put that auto-patching wasn't a thing, there is a tickable box, I'm not sure if this was always there but I found it just now) you've pretty much unlocked everything else. And all that is left to do is max out research. It's cool for its aesthetic and theme, but some features feel useless like the lootboxes part of the auction house, once you unlock it you're either pretty close to getting the research that lets you keep your upgrades after getting a new game, or you have it. Hotfixing makes no sense to do. Cluster Overdrive feels like a useless thing to use. Growth is a constant number that only gets driven up by hype, And it stays mostly around 200-250% and I think the base number is like 14 or something. This number should be modifiable with upgrades. True Fans the monetization upgrades work as a good supplement, but once you get them money feels useless as you're basically left to spend it on development, data centers, and servers. If you like the nostalgia of MMOs & Windows 98, go for it, it's only about 4-6 hours of gameplay depending on what you are going for. Once you get to the e-mail part where you're asked to choose between remaining an indie dev or selling your game company, the game is basically over. But there are achievements to finish out the research and milestones. There are a lot of games out there that do a better job of deserving your time.

Cool and short incremental game. Less than 10 hrs for most content, can recommend, expecially, when on sale.